Many businesses have convinced themselves that they could advertise to their target audience through social media without paying. A common argument has often been “why should I pay for text messages or app development when I can do all that on Facebook or Twitter for free?”
But it is not free really.
Resources required to maintain social media relationships come at a cost. Whether that resource is in-house, or a third party, it will require a budget. In fact, to truly engage with customers on any social media platform requires real financial investment. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are constantly changing the way businesses can utilise their platforms to directly reach their own customers. To keep up with these changes while maintaining a presence and getting the most out of it, businesses need to invest in resources to handle this.
But here are some recent ‘Gallup’ survey statistics that will make you think:
94% of consumers who use Facebook, Twitter and other social networking channels do so only to connect with family and friends.
62% of respondents said the influence of social media on their buying had no impact at all. In the retail sector 56% of shoppers base their purchasing decisions on in-store displays and that 7% base their decisions on social media content.
Facebook will tell you a post on your page will reach on average about 16% of your customers organically. Let’s do the sums; If you have 5,000 ‘likes’ may get your message in front of 800 people. A study carried out by social analytics and reporting company Locowise goes even further stating that the more ‘Likes’ your page has, the less organic reach you will receive. Pages with over 50,000 fans can expect less than 10 percent reach.
If a 10% reach is what you are aiming for, then fine. But what if you could reach 100% of your customers, all 5000 of them. Now surely that would be a strategy worth considering.
Facebook posts are very much a moving target; in normal circumstances you miss most of them! The same applies to Twitter because those feeds are constantly updating. But what about incoming text messages? Generally, you read them on average within 5 seconds of hearing the text alert. The same applies to your customers. With SMS marketing you can reach 100% of your customer in seconds.
So let’s address the cost argument again. We can now start thinking that social media costs pretty much the same as sending SMS messages. The only difference is that one option is giving you a reach of 10% of your potential audience, while the other option puts you in front of 100%!
For more information on SMS Marketing contact us here.